The Shift from a Process to a Project Focus

I’ve noticed an interesting trend in working with my clients.  There is an increased focus on companies assembling project teams comprised of cross-organizational team members to solve problems. This is increasingly being done in favor of single organizations trying to produce results on their own.  More and more project teams are taking on "virtual" characteristics where teams are temporarily assembled and could be located anywhere in the country or the world.

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For project managers, being able to manage virtual teams with team members that may not have a direct reporting relationship to the project manager will continue to be more the norm than the exception in project management. This will require project managers to place greater focus on establishing and maintaining credibility with team members. No credibility means the team will not follow the project manager.

Project managers can effectively navigate the shift by keeping these few points in mind:

1. Act in the line manager's best interests. The PM needs to demonstrate that he or she understands the line manager's business and is thinking like the line manager.
   
2. Learn quickly. If the subject matter is new to the PM the PM needs to double-time-it to learn the functional area and demonstrate to the project team that he or she has strong command of the subject matter.
3. Be transparently diligent. The PM needs to address problems head-on and not try to sweep issues under the carpet and definitely not try to hide problems from his or her business partners.

Lonnie Pacelli
Keynote Speaker | Board Director | Autism Advocate | Author | Project Management Expert | Microsoft/Accenture Veteran 
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